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Smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee can both trigger those sudden, intense bursts of anxiety known as panic attacks. One key reason: nicotine and caffeine are both stimulants that activate the sympathetic nervous system, making the body more responsive to stress or perceived danger. In addition, cigarette smoke contains carbon dioxide, which induces the shortness of…
People who do serious running and other exercise often report higher spirits and lower anxiety. This “runner’s high” is usually attributed to an increased production of endorphins — the body’s own natural opioids. Many scientists have doubted whether runner’s high exists, however; they couldn’t reproduce it reliably in the lab, or confirm the endorphin hypothesis….
Laughter has been described as a kind of “social glue” that binds groups together; it has significant benefits for the individual, too. A decade ago, Dr. Lee Berk of Loma Linda University in California found that an hour spent watching comedy reduces levels of stress hormones and strengthens the immune system. Now Dr. Berk and…
Buzzing PDAs and cell phones, pinging emails, and interactive online safaris are eating up an increasing amount of our time. Psychiatrist Edward Hallowell and his Harvard collaborator, John Ratey have seen a corresponding tenfold increase over the past decade in the number of patients with symptoms resembling attention-deficit disorder, or ADD. People complain of feeling…
Many people have a sense of about how long they’re going to live, which can significantly influence their attitudes and actions. Those life expectancy hunches are usually incorrect, however. Our parents’ life span only has a 3 percent effect on ours. Identical twins die an average of 10 years apart, too. And a study of…
Why do some people seem to have all the luck while others who may be equally talented and presentable never get that big career break or meet the right person? It’s not some kind of magic ability or random chance, says British psychologist Richard Wiseman; to a large extent, “people generate their own good fortune.”…
Deep within the cerebral cortex is a remarkable handful of cells, discovered only recently, called “mirror neurons.” They’re the only known cells that let us intuitively grasp the meaning of other people’s perceived actions and expressions. As neuroscientist Marco Iacoboni of UCLA explains, they accomplish this by triggering in milder form exactly the same brain…
It’s hard to keep up with all the research on what makes a healthy diet. Fortunately, Dr. Fernando Gómez-Pinilla, professor of neurosurgery and physiology at UCLA, has done a lot of it for us. In a recent article in Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Gómez-Pinilla analyzed findings from more than 160 scientifically-sound studies of neurology-related nutrition. “Food…
“Sleep that knits up the ravel’d sleave of care,” wrote Shakespeare, and it’s true; sleep refreshes our outlook on life, plus much more besides. Recent research shows that sleep is essential to repairing physical wear and tear, from healing wounds to building the immune system. Chronic lack of sleep can cause depression and impaired thinking….